But his biggest priority right now is a stable job with good pay and a bright future, and for that he's turning to the construction industry. As a student in a two-year program at Honolulu Community College, Chun is just months away from becoming an apprentice in refrigeration mechanics.

With all the talk about a construction boom in the works and projections for 7,425 new workers in construction over the next five years, he sees his trade as the foundation of a solid career.

"It should be good," Chun said. "I think more people are getting into construction now. Wherever people see the money, that's where they go."

Like many young people entering the construction industry, Chun didn't start out with plans to enter the trades. After he got out of high school and entered the University of Hawai'i, Chun studied in the School of Travel Industry Management for two years.

"But (tourism) died down after Sept. 11. At the time they were laying a lot of people off," Chun said. He steered away from tourism and also turned down scholarships to go to art school.

With a 16-month-old daughter to care for and plans to get married in about two years, "I'm trying to just get stable and get everything together," Chun said. "I went for something more secure."

Job counselors would say he made a wise choice.

Construction workers are paid well: The statewide average salary in the construction industry was $49,112 in 2002, the most recent figure available.

But even with incentives like pay and available jobs, the industry faces the challenge of recruiting enough workers to fill the expected openings. If they can't hire locally, employers will need to look elsewhere. Some already expect to turn to the Mainland for qualified skilled workers.

"What's happening across the nation, they're talking about job losses — jobs are being exported, people are struggling to find work," said Bruce Coppa, executive director of the Pacific Resource Partnership, an advocacy group for union contractors.

"What's happening in Hawai'i, we've got the opposite."

Workers in transition

Construction jobs generally draw young people who are fresh out of school or just beginning their working years. But as demand for workers accelerates, the jobs will probably attract more service workers from tourism or retail who are looking for better pay, Coppa said.

Workers who left the construction industry because of its instability in the 1990s or moved to places like Las Vegas which had jobs now see Hawai'i as a hot market.

"There is going to be a certain amount of people who say, 'Hey, here's an opportunity to make big money in the construction industry. Let's move from what we're doing now,' " Coppa said.

One example is Dean Shigeta, 33, who lives in Kaimuki and had been working odd jobs. Like Chun, he decided to enter the HCC refrigeration program to learn the trade. He praised the career planning skills of the younger students in his class.

"They're smart. They know what's going on," Shigeta said. "For me, I had to finally do something with my life. I figured it was time to finally get my life together."

Guy Shibayama, training coordinator for the sheet metal workers' union joint apprenticeship committee, said the industry tends to attract people in their mid- to late-20s. But even some up to their 40s are drawn to the work.

"They come from every walk of life," Shibayama said. "Ex-white collar people or people who work in, let's say, Longs Drugs or someplace, get to a point where they start to get older and they start to look for their financial security."

Undesirable work

While the industry needs a steady in-flow of workers through the next several years, recruiting high schoolers for construction hasn't been a runaway success.

For many of the youngest workers-to-be, a strong growth forecast for construction means little.

Shoji Bravo, a 16-year-old junior at Moanalua High School, is thinking of entering the University of Hawai'i or joining the military. He isn't interested in construction.

"My dad is a retired carpenter," Bravo said. "He said it's a good job, but it's kind of dangerous. Plus it's really long hours."

Bravo's sentiments are not uncommon. According to the 2002 Jobs Rated Almanac, the latest available, construction laborer was ranked No. 244 out of the top 250 jobs.

"The industry is not recognized as very prestigious," Coppa acknowledged. "You work out in the sun, it's demanding on the body."

What's more, construction has been relatively sluggish for the past decade and it's a volatile industry subject to world events. "Somebody sneezes — it affects our industry," Coppa said. "One day you have a job, and the next day you're not working."

Teenagers don't see construction as glamorous, said Larry Park, a counselor at Moanalua High School. "A lot of them don't want to get dirty," he said. "Construction is a good career, but you gotta be disciplined."

Nolan Kido, a 14-year-old ninth grader at Roosevelt High School, is more interested in becoming a waiter for the good tips than a worker in construction.

"My dad does that, but he says it's hard work and it's in the sun," Kido said. "I think it's important that you get a job that you want to do."

Even at the Honolulu Community College job placement center, coordinator Lorrie Cahill said many students follow their dreams more than trends in work force demand.

"They go into 'what I think I want to do,' and then they go into it and find out, 'Oh, there's only 15 jobs a year,' " Cahill said.

Making hard hats look good

Shibayama thinks young people may not be enthusiastic about construction jobs because they haven't been exposed to the jobs.

"Sheet metal — in my opinion, I don't know of anything better," Shibayama said. But "the people that I knew in elementary school were firefighters and police officers. You never saw a hard hat come to school. Nobody asked a hard hat to come to school."

Pacific Resource Partnership's Coppa said the construction industry needs to be talking about job opportunities in the schools and carrying the message "that you can make a good living, that there is prestige."

At a time when outsourcing of jobs to countries like India and China is trending upwards, on-site construction can tout its obvious advantage: the jobs remain here.

"It's not like you can build an apartment over in Europe or in Asia and bring it over here and put it in the ground," Coppa said.

Gwen Mau, a college and career counselor at Moanalua High School, said she tells students the success stories of alumni who have gone into the trades and are making a good living as carpenters and sheet metal workers.

One former student was making $75,000 a year as a carpenter at 21 years old, Mau said. "As teachers we all laugh — most of our students make way more than we do," she said.

To be sure, there's no way to say if everyone who wants it will get a job. The sheet metal industry, for example, is experiencing about 20 percent to 25 percent unemployment and hasn't seen a drastic ramp up in job openings yet, Shibayama said.

"They say we have all this work. Nobody says when," he said.

When the hiring does take off, the industry will likely need to look to the Mainland to get experienced workers, he said.

"To get qualified workers you cannot start with apprentices because apprentices are learning," Shibayama said. "If you get a boom you need people who know what they're doing."